


Live Through This

by orphan_account



Series: Sawyer/Kate: Fake Married AU [1]
Category: Lost
Genre: F/M, Grief/Mourning, IT WILL BE HAPPIER, eventually. probably. they aren't very happy people but they keep each other safe.
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-08
Updated: 2015-12-08
Packaged: 2018-05-05 17:33:25
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 699
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5384336
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ben could never pass up an opportunity to fuck with their lives.<br/>It had been a pretty clever last move, marrying them.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Live Through This

**Author's Note:**

  * For [buffysummers](https://archiveofourown.org/users/buffysummers/gifts).



> The first line was a prompt; I swear not everything I write will have the same premise. Who's really complaining about Skate road trip fic, though?

“Pull over. Let me drive for a while.”   
They’d been on the road since before daylight and it was dusk, but if Kate was tired, she hadn’t noticed. There was a lot she couldn’t feel, lately.

“It’s fine.”  
She had always liked driving, and had never liked to share. There was a certain amount of comfort that came with having to focus on the road, because it meant Kate-– if all was according to plan-– couldn’t think about anything else. Of course, there were times when life was particularly disastrous, too, and she ended up relying on runaway horses for aid. The average person might put this day in those ranks; say it was inadvisable for her to drive all day after seeing Claire and Aaron off at the airport. But she hadn’t had “average” thrown her way since high school.

And it was fine.  

“Please, Kate. It ain’t safe.”  
More than anything, she was annoyed that he was talking. He had done so well since they’d left. And since she liked the quiet, and since Sawyer had said “please”, she did pull over. They’d taken a long way back, but they couldn’t be far from Albuquerque, anyway. Home. Back to the too-big house they’d bought after Hurley had gotten them their new documentation.

Kate Austen was dead.  
She was Lucy now, officially: it had seemed fitting that she nod to her history with Cassidy, since she and Sawyer were all she had left. And since they were a family now, at least on paper, because Ben could never pass up an opportunity to fuck with their lives.

It had been a pretty clever last move, marrying them.  
Turned out they didn’t really mind, after the anger and the tired laughter faded.  If they were going to be stuck with anyone, it might as well be with each other. It wasn’t like they had other options. They had separate rooms and came and went without much discussion, but it was nice to not need to worry. It was strange to not need to worry.

Kate stifled a yawn as she got out, vaguely annoyed that he had been right. Sawyer had a way of picking up on things where she was concerned: it was not a skill they always shared. The way she saw it, she dealt with what she needed to. If it didn’t end in prison, that was a plus, and she had done more coping in the past year than in the previous twenty-nine combined. There was a lot to be said for small victories, and in Kate’s opinion, the foremost thing to be said was that she deserved a break. Or maybe not as much deserved one as much as she needed it.

She didn’t have any business mourning Aaron, anyway. He was never hers. The farther away from her he was, the better off he and Claire would be. The safer they would be.

The less she knew, the better.  
It was fine.

He met her around the front of the car, of course. Stopped dead in front of her and sized her up like a painting he wanted to authenticate. Truth be told, she preferred it when she just constantly caught him staring at her ass: neither one of them had any business in museums. But Kate was tired, damn him, so she played along.

“You okay, Freckles?” A thumb traced her jaw, tilted her face toward his. She was fine, really, but he wasn’t helping.   
“What do you want me to say?”   
Not that, probably. He gave her a look you’d expect to be reserved for his kindergartener.  
There was a lot they were good at, the two of them, but heart to hearts had never made the cut. It was a challenge, when you spent most of your time trying to forget that you had one.

Sawyer had always liked a challenge.

“It’s fine,” she said. “I’m just tired.”  _In more ways than one_. She didn’t add that, but Sawyer must have heard it, anyway, because he finally seemed satisfied. He let her go with an absent nod and what might have passed as a smile, if she were anyone else.

**Author's Note:**

> It's nothing but time and a face that you lose  
> I chose to feel it and you couldn't choose


End file.
